The Landcare revegetation area on Castle Hill provided a nice surprise this month (Sept 2021, photo below) when flowers appeared on several small Pavetta australiensis, only 8 months after they were planted as tubestock.
Photo: Julia Hazel
Pavetta australiensis (Rubiaceae) grows as an understory shrub in our drier rain forest areas, monsoon forests and vine thickets. It has attractive glossy foliage (first photo below) and in favourable years it puts on a stunning floral display, typically in late September (second photo below).
Photo: Russell CummingPhoto: Russell Cumming
Pavetta australiensis has also proven very successful as a garden plant, commonly called Butterfly Bush. It needs good drainage but adapts to full sun or part shade. Its delicately fragrant flowers attract butterflies and the ripe black fruits provide food for native birds.
Dischidia nummularia (Apocynaceae) is a dainty native vine that grows as an epiphyte on paperbarks and other coastal trees in northern Queensland, sometimes in association with Myrmecodia species (ant-plants) and some native orchids.
Photo: Julia Hazel
In favourable situations, these plants develop an attractive cascade of rounded succulent leaves. People have likened Dischidia nummularia foliage to strings of coins or buttons, hence its common names ‘Money plant’ or ‘Button orchid” (although botanically it’s not an orchid).
Photo: Russell Cumming
Dischidia nummularia bears tiny creamy flowers at seemingly erratic intervals, easily overlooked in wild plants growing high in the trees. Their delicate beauty is best appreciated at eye-level, as I discovered when my plant in a hanging basket produced its first flowers this month.
Photo: Julia Hazel
These plants are seldom seen in cultivation although they are grown successfully by a few keen enthusiasts even in temperate latitudes, typically indoors or in well-sheltered locations.
Dischidia nummularia can be propagated from seed or small segments of stem. Both methods seem to require a good deal of luck and patience.
For botanical details see the Dischidia nummularia entry in the database of Australian Tropical Rainforest Plants
Townsville is outside the natural range of Myrsine subsessilis subsp. cryptostemon but a single specimen is growing very well in Anderson Gardens.
With masses of tiny flowers clustered along the stems, this plant made a splendid show at the time of our group’s July outing.
Photo: Beth Ballment
Small blue fruits can be expected to ripen in a few months. John’s photo below was taken several years ago in November.
Photo: John Elliott
In the wild Myrsine subsessilis subsp. cryptostemon is an uncommon rainforest shrub with a natural range from Paluma to the Endeavour River.
Curiously, the Anderson Park specimen has broader leaves (left in photo below) than the typical leaf shape (right, from Jackes 2005) for Myrsine subsessilis subsp. cryptostemon.
Myrsine subsessilis subsp. cryptostemon was one of several new Myrsine species and subspecies formally described by Betsy Jackes in 2005.
Ref: Jackes Betsy R. (2005) Revision of Myrsine (Myrsinaceae) in Australia. Australian Systematic Botany 18, 399-438.
After our wonderful outing to White Mountains National Park, it was impossible to pick “the best” among many fascinating plants we saw. Instead, our Plant of the Month is “the biggest” of our weekend discoveries.
Photo: Julia Hazel
Eucalyptus chartaboma is not widely known, although it is a Queensland endemic. Its scattered distribution in north Queensland includes the western section of White Mountains National Park which we visited on the second day of our trip. Many thanks to Peter for introducing us to this area and pointing out a number of species new to most of us.
The scientific name is derived from Greek (charte, of paper and bomos, base) and refers to thick papery bark covering the lower part of the trunk. The distinctive bark is also reflected in the tree’s common name, Queensland woollybutt.
Photo: Julia Hazel
Our visit was outside the flowering period of Eucalyptus chartaboma (Jan to April) but we were impressed by its heavy woody seed capsules. The “giant gumnuts” we found were just slightly smaller than the maximum size recorded, 75 x 65 mm.
Photo: Julia Hazel
Hopefully on a future visit we might see the brilliant orange flowers of Eucalyptus chartaboma. In anticipation, we can enjoy John’s photo below, taken in March some years ago.
Photo: John Elliott
Eucalyptus chartaboma looks very similar to some closely-related species in the Kimberley and Top End of NT. For botanical details see EUCLID Eucalypts of Australia online
While Australia is home to 117 species of sundew, representing about 50% of all recorded species, the centre of that diversity is southern Western Australia. Atlas of Living Australia lists 21 species in Queensland; three of these are endemic to rain forests of North Queensland and have very limited distributions.
Drosera prolifera is only known from canyons near the summit of Thornton Peak behind Cape Tribulation, while D. schizandra is only known from the slopes of Mt Bartle Frere. Both these species are considered “Vulnerable”.
D. adelae is only found in the hills behind Rockingham Bay and on Hinchinbrook Is. It is listed as “Near threatened”. I found large patches of this species along the banks of a rainforest stream north of Ingham, photo below.
Habitat of Drosera adelae Photo: Hugh Sweatman
In early November, the plants were flowering, with the flower heads showing a characteristic unfurling growth.
Drosera adelae flower head Photo: Hugh Sweatman
The leaves are much larger than those of other common Drosera spp that are found near Townsville. They have “tentacles” on their upper surfaces but all except newest leaves seem to lack the sticky “dew” – perhaps washed off by the high rainfall. Rain being one predictable hazard of rainforest life, it has been suggested that D. schizandra, which lives in one of the wettest locations in Australia, may be abandoning carnivory.
A patch of Drosera adelae Photo: Hugh Sweatman
In spite of its “near threatened” status, D. adelae is apparently easy to grow if one can maintain high humidity and a diet of tiny flies, and it is widely cultivated by carnivorous plants enthusiasts.
On a visit to the carnivorous plant display at Kew Gardens a few years ago, I was surprised to see D. adelae given pride of place, next to a sign that informed the public that there was no “Feeding time” as such for the carnivorous plants …
Our P o M for May is Drosera adelae, a “true North Queenslander” highlighted in Hugh’s presentation at our recent meeting.
Photo: Hugh Sweatman
Like other Drosera (about 150 species worldwide, commonly known as Sundews) D. adelae has mobile glandular hairs on its leaves, used to trap tiny insects from which the plant absorbs nutrients.
D. adelae is the southern-most of three Drosera species endemic to Queensland rainforests. Read more in Hugh’s article here.
